Justification and validation of the comprehensive religiosity scale for Orthodox Judaism

Most current religious measures have been geared toward Christian populations while few tools have been developed for Orthodox Jews. The Comprehensive Religiosity Scale of Orthodox Judaism (CRS-OJ) is a 76-item assessment tool that was created to be the first multi-dimensional scale designed specifically for this population. The current study attempted to demonstrate that this scale exhibited adequate reliability and validity in order to continue to ethically use it in research and clinical settings. Data have been previously gathered from 340 people in the United States and Israel and, for purposes of this current study, 377 respondents filled out an online version of the study along with several other measures. It was hypothesized that nine reliable factors would be found through principal component factor analysis, applying direct oblimin factor rotation, performed on the archival data set and confirmed on the newly collected data. Reliability estimates were measured. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were assessed by measuring whether the factors correlated significantly with scores of other validated constructs that they were expected to correlate with and whether no relationship was found with unrelated constructs. Finally, using linear regression models, the scales were expected to show significant differences between more and less fervent Orthodox Jews. Differences were expected in the hypothesized Practice, Belief, and Centrality of Religion scales between Orthodox and non-Orthodox participants. Meeting most expectations, the common items between the data sets for each factor were formed into seven new subscales: Belief, Practice, Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Social Exclusivity, Stringency, and Social Sensitivity. However, only Practice, Extrinsic, and Belief consistently demonstrated acceptable reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. More fervently religious individuals within Orthodoxy exhibited higher levels on six of the seven factors in the newly collected data, mostly confirming the present study's hypotheses. As predicted, on the Beliefs and Practices scale, the CRS-OJ reliably differentiated between Orthodox and non-Orthodox participants. Further refinement of this scale may help clinicians to be better able to address religious issues in treatment, easing wariness about seeking clinical services, as well as studying a number of unique phenomena that have not been adequately studied within the Jewish population.